Columbia, Missouri

Living in Columbia

Columbia, Mo., is known as an ideal college town, combining small-town comforts, community spirit and low cost of living with big-city culture, activities and resources. Our city of about 100,000 people is located midway between Missouri’s largest cities, St. Louis and Kansas City. Money magazine, Fortune magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Men's Journal, MSN.com and other news entities have named Columbia, Mo., one of the best places in the United States to live because of its high quality of life. The American Institute for Economic Research ranked Columbia among the nation's top 10 college towns.

Columbia is home to nationally renowned public schools, including two top-ranked high schools, and other colleges and educational centers. It's packed with restaurants and entertainment venues and hosts more than a dozen annual cultural festivals. The city boasts multiple city parks as well as Rock Bridge State Park and the MKT Trail for hiking and bicycling.

Affordability

Columbia proves to be less expensive than the national cost of living average, making it easy for students to find safe and comfortable accommodations in any price range. Beyond MU’s residential units, students can find more housing options downtown, in friendly neighborhoods or at apartment communities spread throughout the city. Transportation to campus is available through the public bus system and shuttle services.

Diversity

Columbia attracts residents from all over the world, and Columbians value and celebrate our diverse population. The city is home to more than 100 places of worship, including a synagogue and an Islamic center, and counts many international grocery stores and restaurants among the local businesses.

Want to go shopping? You're in luck! The District is packed with designer boutiques, shoe stores, jewelers, florists, book shops, sweets shops and purveyors of eco-friendly products and novelty items. Whether you want to show your school spirit with some black and gold gear, show your sense of style with cool vintage duds or show someone special how much you care, Columbia's stores have you covered.

The great outdoors

Columbia is an increasingly bicycle-friendly community, with a city program to encourage cycling, walking and public transportation. The MKT Trail takes cyclists and hikers all through Columbia and links to the 225-mile Katy Trail, which stretches across the state.

Festivals and events

Columbia hosts more than a dozen annual festivals, including the internationally acclaimed True/False Film Festival that attracts documentary filmmakers from throughout the world and the New York Times-touted Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival, which draws top-named acts and crowds of 100,000 people. We have art fairs, parades, pub crawls, sidewalk sales and outdoor concerts in the street. A quarterly ARTrageous Fridays gallery crawl unites artists, musicians, chefs and the community for a night of downtown revelry every season. And each spring we celebrate Earth Day with a party in Peace Park.

Schools

Columbia is home to nationally renowned public schools, including two top-ranked high schools. It also supports other institutes of higher education, including Columbia College, which is ranked among "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News & World Report, and Stephens College, a women’s college known for its fashion, film and fine arts.

Life-long education is a shared community value in Columbia. From preschool through retirement, the campus and city offer diverse, high-quality educational options. Columbia offers a public school system that annually produces some of the largest numbers of national merit scholars in the state, 18 parochial and private schools, four special-needs training facilities, an adult education center and a lifelong learning institute.